Solid Gold
by HecateA
Summary: In which musty Roman traditions are still musty to Piper. Oneshot.


**I only vaguely remember what I was looking up when I stumbled across this tidbit of info, but I managed to keep it to myself particularly in the goal of waiting for this week. Enjoy! **

July 14-20- Thalia and Luke (Keeping it PG)

July 21-27- Beckendorf and Silena (The Girl in the Attic)

July 28- August 3- Grover and Juniper (The Track of Time)

August 4-10- Chris and Clarisse (Scraps)

August 11-17 Tyson and Ella (Skywards)

August 18-24- Frank and Hazel (Correspondence)

August 25-31- Leo and Hazel (The Toy Factory)

September 1-7- Leo and Reyna (oops... pending)

September 8-14- Jason and Reyna (French, Grecian and Dutch)

September 15-21- Jason and Piper (Ta-dah!)

September 22-28- Free Ship!

September 28- October 7- Percy and Annabeth

**Disclaimer: I own nor Jason nor Piper, nor Frank nor Camp, nor Ancient Rome and their fancy shmancy concepts. **

* * *

**Solid Gold**

* * *

"Do Romans celebrate Valentine's Day?" Piper asked quietly as she helped Annabeth gather blueprints and loose leaf squared paper.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "I hope so. They're the ones who put Saint Valentine to death for illegally marrying soldiers and started this entire commercialised nonsense. Why?"

Piper bit her lip.

"Jason didn't mention it?" Annabeth guessed.

"We don't have to talk about it," Piper said quickly. Annabeth missed her boyfriend enough without being reminded that they were both missing what would be their first Valentine's day.

"No, let's," Annabeth said. "He hasn't?"

Piper shook her head. "I was just wondering… if he was just, I don't know, out of the loop or something…"

"The romans have some really weird Valentine's Day traditions," Annabeth said. "I'm talking about whips-and-goat-skins-in-the-streets weird. Maybe he just doesn't know how to approach the subject."

"Yeah," Piper said. "That's probably it."

Annabeth nudged Piper with her elbow.

"And, if he doesn't, there's nothing stopping you from bringing it up," Annabeth said. "Big Three Kids? Slow as snails. You've got to put some life in them every now and then. Trust me on this."

* * *

Six months.

Wow.

Six entire months, six times thirty(one) days, six times thirty times twenty four hours...

W.

O.

W.

Piper's dad had worked on projects that took less time than that. Six months was the equivalent of two seasons, more than a school semester, and long enough to be deemed unsalvageable if you were comatose. Okay, not the most cheerful examples, but seriously? It was big. With all the odds (also half of the populace) against them Piper had… well, she'd definitely _hoped _that she and Jason would last this long, but she hadn't been sure.

So maybe she _had _expected him to at least mention it. Oh well.

* * *

Piper's morning kiss was a little longer than usual.

"One year, hmm?" Jason said.

"Yeah," Piper said playing with his shirt collar. "Doesn't feel like it."

"At all," he agreed. "Feels like the blink of an eye."

"Happy anniversary."

That was the only mention of it for the entire day. Even Leo made a bigger deal about it- confetti canon at the camp fire and all.

* * *

"Oh," Piper said raising her head. Jason looked up quickly before frowning.

"What?" He asked.

"Mistletoe," she pointed.

He frowned some more.

"If you're under the mistletoe with someone you kiss them," Piper said.

Jason nodded, registering the new tidbit of information, and smiled. "I don't need a plant to give me _that _advice."

Piper grinned as he practically raised her off her feet in this particular kiss. But really Jason had just confirmed a theory she'd been harbouring and keeping to herself for a while.

Jason had grown up in a micro-society, not in the same America as she has- no matter how geographically close they'd been. There were some concepts that nobody had ever bothered to explain to him- like Easter egg hunts, algebra, the difference between muffins and cupcakes, gun control laws… none of these things mattered in his usual day to day activities, but they were starting to as he wandered around camp or New York or 'Frisco more and more. One day they'd been at Percy's house and Jason nearly drew his sword when the toaster had popped.

So Piper had brushed away all the weird feelings that came with holidays and birthdays and anniversaries getting pushed aside, figuring that maybe he just didn't _know_ that Valentine's Day was a day for lovers or that birthdays were usually celebrated. She was right.

Jason was already doing enough for her, ripping his world apart to fit it in with hers and patching up all the holes to keep them together. She could give up a bunch of traditions, right? If he didn't need a plant to tell him to kiss her until she lost her mind, she didn't need a specific day to love him. She could just do it any day.

* * *

Piper nearly mentioned how funny it was that her last day of camp was on her 18th birthday, but she kept her trap shut. Jason hadn't mentioned it though, and she didn't want him to feel bad- like he'd forgotten something that mattered. Eighteen just meant that she could legally get a tattoo without Dads saying Styx about it (though he would) and that she could now vote.

* * *

"Happy anniversary," Drew said as soon as she picked up the phone.

Piper was startled and she nearly dropped the steaming pot that she was holding.

"What?"

"I said happy anniversary, sweetheart," Drew repeated. The line was quiet for a few seconds. "Yours and Jason's? Not ours, if that's where the confusion is at."

"No, I know," Piper said. "I just… I'd forgotten is all."

"You _forgot," _Drew said.

"Yeah," Piper repeated, sandwiching the phone between her ear and shoulder as she drained the pasta. "I don't know. We never do anything anyways."

"Doesn't he get you flowers?"

"Nope."

"No? You're not a jewellery person, but not even that?"

"No," Piper said. "You sound like you're taking this personally."

"I'm not, it's just… Mom must've adopted you," Drew laughed.

* * *

She weaved one hand in his hair as the other pulled at her scarf's knot. He swivelled in his desk chair and pulled her on his knees. She let herself mould against his chest, like she usually did. He brushed away a piece of hair and kissed the now-free spot.

"How was class?" Jason asked.

"Decent. Much more interesting than yesterday," she said. "Teacher cleared up _tons _of stuff about the project."

"That's good."

"Yup," Piper said. "You?"

"It was okay," Jason said. "But it turns out that I read the wrong chapter last night."

"Ooh. Ouch."

"Yeah. So I just wasted an entire night's worth of studying," Jason said. "Not my smoothest move."

"Think you could spare another?" Piper said her hands snaking up his chest. Fine, she _was _lonely and needy. Nothing shameful there. "It's Valentine's Day, after all…"

"I know," Jason said looping his arms around her waist. "Why'd you think I crammed already?"

"You remembered?" Piper blabbed.

"Yeah I remembered," Jason said. "I'm not stupid."

"That's not what I meant," Piper blushed. "I just… I didn't think you cared."

Jason shrugged. "You never particularly seemed to care either. I always thought you thought that Valentine's Day was too cheesy or that anniversaries were pointless or too Aphrodite-like. I don't know."

"You never brought it up or said anything," Piper said. "I thought that _you _didn't care, or that you didn't know or…"

Jason ducked his head with a sigh. "I've got to stop doing that, don't I?"

Piper blushed. "Doing what?"

"Following these old traditions and assuming that you know," Jason said. "Praetors don't have a huge allowance and we work too hard to find other jobs. So I was saving up for the longest time. And then we moved into this place, and had tuition and rent to worry about, plus that _dracanae _couple busted the windows, then I broke my arm…"

"Jason, what are you rambling about?" Piper said.

"See, it's this old Roman rule- well, more of a concept. Metal was starting to become more and more used- not just for weapons and tools anymore. Luxuries like toys and furniture and jewellery started being partially metallic. But it was still expensive, so often you could measure the value of something by the value of the material, rarity of the metal- especially when it came to jewellery, rings and stuff. When I was a kid, the legionnaire who raised me was nuts about it- she told me never to give a girl anything less than she deserved, no matter what. I didn't mean to ignore you or piss you off Piper. It's just that I was saving up for something gold," Jason said.

Piper's stomach crawled.

"Jason, you're not pissing me off," she said running a thumb across his cheekbone. "That's… that's actually ridiculously sweet."

"I didn't mean to ignore you then," Jason said.

"None either," Piper said. "I mean, anniversaries and holidays are anniversaries and holidays, right? That's all."

Hesitation flashed across Jason's face.

"Really?" He said. "Because, umm… "

He slipped a ring box out of his pocket. "I finally got something."


End file.
